Cons:

Summer is upon us and that means a slew of "summer movies" where the action is hot and the plotline is predictably thin. Recently, it's also meant more tie-ins than ever, from the predictable fast food trinkets and backpacks to the newer addition of video games. With the recent mediocre entries (Enter the Matrix, The Hulk, the first slew of Shrek games), it's always a little dicey when new games timed with Hollywood's release schedule show up for review. Scarier still, none of the major voice talent from the movie is in the game, and the developer, Luxoflux, is fresh off the success of True Crime: Streets of L.A. An odd concoction, but by sticking to the basics and polishing when necessary, the developers have gone from a bloody, mature rated game to a kid-friendly movie tie-in without too many hiccups.

Shrek 2 is loosely tied to the movie, where Shrek and Fiona have to convince Fiona's parents that Shrek is worthy of marrying a princess. To do this, naysayers such as the handsome prince and the evil fairy godmother must be convinced by any means necessary, and along the way, Shrek and friends will tackle numerous side quests with a host of supporting characters. In game terms, this means you end up with your standard platform game with a few clever (and a few boring) mini-games thrown in. The difficulty level for most seasoned gamers veers on the easy side, although there are a few uneven spots where the target audience (that tough-to-define "tween") may become frustrated.

Oh, he's so strong!

An entire cast of characters is playable, and you'll always have four on the screen at any given moment, with one exception: "Hero Time." These events (there's usually one per level) use the special skills given to each playable character and place them in a short mini-game by themselves. For example, Puss In Boots can walk on tightropes, so his Hero Time is a small level with lots of that action. Lil' Red can throw apples, a requirement of her mini-game. Most of these games are fairly simple and can be beaten on the first try, so long as you're familiar with the standard conventions of platform games.

For some reason, the developers didn't bother to provide a description of how to play each little area, so there may be some trial and error. Stuck trying to defeat the troll? Just roll the bombs he rolls toward you back at him and he'll take damage. It's simple enough, but if you're a parent or someone without much gaming skill, this is not the obvious solution. With other games (notably just about every Nintendo game) providing brief descriptions of what you have to do, this oversight points to a hastened development schedule.

Another area where the game is mostly good is with the camera. The manual tells you there are four camera icons and give a description of each, but it doesn't have pictures of the icons. This usually isn't a problem, but there are some areas where the camera will slowly rotate back to some predetermined position, even after you've moved it for a better viewing angle. There are additional areas that are slightly on rails (somewhat like the Crash Bandicoot series of games) and there is no camera movement allowed, which can produce some awkward angles and untimely, frustrating restarts. Thankfully, there are plenty of checkpoints around each level, so you'll never have to play giant chunks of the game more than once, unless you want every single collectible item. Of course, collecting everything unlocks some movie-related information, so some may grow tired of repeating one level just to find that one thing they missed.